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UK Parliament
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Mullahs ruling Iran have nothing to do with Islam
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EP Visit Video Report
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Maryam Rajavi speaks to the European Parliament
At the European Parliament, Mrs. Rajavi, calls for abandoning appeasement, removal of terror tag on PMOI
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Home  Speeches Maryam Rajavi addresses Conference of Parliamentarians and Jurists in London
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Maryam Rajavi addresses Conference of Parliamentarians and Jurists in London |
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Tuesday, 22 March 2005 |
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Page 1 of 2 
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, addresses Conference of Parliamentarians and Jurists in London
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Chairman,
It is indeed an honour for me to address this conference of British and European jurists and lawmakers.
It is appropriate that this distinguished assembly is taking place in a
hall that once served as the seat of parliament during the London
blitz; a bastion of resistance against fascism in the darkest hours of
Britain's history. Today, my people are going through the darkest hours
of Iran's history, under the rule of a brutal theocracy that has
emerged as the scourge of our times.
A week ago, millions of Iranian women and men across Iran used the
occasion of ancient end-of-Persian-year celebrations to resonate the
chant of freedom against the ruling mullahs across the country. They
again displayed the resolve of the Iranian people for change in Iran.
Like those sailing into uncharted seas in lonely nights, the brave
Iranians resisting the barbaric despots have a right to wonder if their
cry for freedom is finding an echo among men and women of conscience
around the world.
Yes is the answer, as clearly shown today by the confluence of law and
politics in your symposium and your emphasis on the need to distinguish
between terrorism and legitimate resistance.
Let history remember that the conscience of Europe and Britain rejects
deals over the rights of the Iranian people to resist religious tyranny.
Today, appeasement of the ruling ayatollahs in Iran is thwarting the
will of the Iranian people for change. Twenty-seven years ago, as the
Shah's regime was going through its final weeks, the then-British
Foreign Secretary declared that Britain must stand by the side of her
ally. Today, in an echo of failed policies of the past, the British
Foreign Secretary has become the most frequent high-profile Western
visitor to Tehran, having made five trips in two years. The Foreign
Secretary was quoted by the state-run media in Tehran as taking pride
in the fact that as the Home Secretary, he had proscribed the main
Iranian opposition group, the People's Mojahedin. He took the lead in
putting the terror tag on the Mojahedin in the European Union and
personally informed the Iranian government ahead of the war in Iraq
that camps belonging to the Iranian Mojahedin would be bombed. Oddly
enough, the freedom-fighters bombed in those camps had received the
support of a majority of members of Parliament in Britain in their
endeavour to end religious tyranny in Iran.
It is to be remembered that the Iranian resistance movement had been
supported by the Labour Party and its leadership for 15 years and
invited to Labour's annual conferences. We continue to enjoy strong
grassroots support in the Labour Party and among its parliamentarians.
When a majority of members of the House of Commons and more than 100
Peers note in their joint statement that "supporting the Iranian
Mojahedin is indispensable to the fight against terrorism," why does
the British government continue to proscribe the Mojahedin?
The Home Secretary acknowledged in February 2001 in a written note to
Parliament that the Mojahedin never attacked Western or British
interests.
Why did Britain join France and Germany to promise the mullahs that if
they were to limit their nuclear program, the European Union would
continue to keep the Mojahedin on the terrorism list? Was this not a
travesty of justice and the fight against terrorism?
One must particularly note that all members of the Mojahedin in Iraq
have been recognized by the Coalition member states, including Britain,
as "protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention" and that the
US government announced that it had found no basis to bring charges
against any members of the Mojahedin.
So how can one justify keeping this label? The terrorist label against
the Iranian Resistance is not only a move against an opposition
movement. It is capitulation to the dictates of the ayatollahs and a
barrier to change in Iran.
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Future of Iran: Oppression or Democracy |
A Report on a meeting organized by the Friends of a Free Iran on Iran and EU's policy on that country
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